


Where has the time gone?

by mayathewriter



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Drabble, Gen, Introspection, M/M, TDP Week Day 4 - Regret, also the runaan/tinker is minor sorry, i honestly didn't mean for it to be exactly 500 words i swear, i take some liberties with moonshadow culture, not really angst but not exactly Happy either, one dude thinking about his mistakes in a jail cell cause hes a good uncle/father figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-25 00:27:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16186298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayathewriter/pseuds/mayathewriter
Summary: some introspection from a jailed assassin





	Where has the time gone?

**Author's Note:**

> me, checking the time: wow i wrote that really fast!  
> me, checking the word count: oh

Time is a funny thing. It flies by you, slips through your fingers like sand until you have too much of it and not enough to do with it except look back at all the time you’ve wasted.

Runaan doesn’t remember if he said goodbye to Tinker the day he left for the mission. Can’t remember if he even  _ saw _ him that morning. Something heavy settles in his stomach when he realizes that no, Tinker had to be at the forges early that morning. He had promised the night before that the mission wouldn’t take too long, and while there was always worry when it came to his assassinations, it had been the full moon. There shouldn’t have been much risk in this mission.

He should have made time, should have carved out some time before he left to hold his Bonded, should’ve forgoed sleep and spent the night tracing his Lifelines.  _ Something _ .

Instead, he let the grains of sand fall, fall, fall. 

That would be Regret 1, he supposed, the closest thing to a smile ghosting his lips for a split second.

_ This is going to be a long list. _

Another voice came, unbidden, a memory from a fight that didn’t seem all that long ago.  _ Probably _ .

He was barely twenty-five when he met Rayla for the first time, alone but not orphaned yet, her parents off and fighting to protect Thunder. She was in the beginner class, just at the start of her training, but she outpaced  _ everyone _ , in every way imaginable. He had taken her under his wing, trained her and helped her hone her skills, making her the youngest moonshadow assassin by half a decade. 

She was five, watching him and the other assassins fight with wide-eyed wonder, begging him to teach him how to do a cool flip he did. She was seven, learning how to braid from Tinker using Runaan’s hair, the fine strands tangling over and over before she’d gotten one small, single braid tucked behind his ear. She was ten, outrunning and outfighting assassins nearly seven years her senior. Twelve, hanging from a tree by her knees, giving him a heart attack every time she’d so much as swung a little too hard. Fifteen, getting her own pair of swords for the first time and tackling him in a hug when she saw what they were.

About two years ago, he and Tinker had decided to set up a guest room. It was never supposed to be for anyone specific, but if they decided to make the walls Rayla’s favorite shade of green, who would know?

About two days ago, he had tried to kill her. Would have succeeded, too, had they continued. Would never be able to look at himself the same if he had.

He can only hope that he would have a few moments to fix that mess, too, a few moments for his last words to be something other than a death sentence.

Where has the time gone?

**Author's Note:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
